65 research outputs found
The Perspective of Domestic Legal Systems. Report on Italy
No full textIn this article, the Author provides an overview of the Italian approach towards evidence gathered abroad. In particular, he analyses national exclusionary rules, as shaped by the Italian case law. The major issue addressed by the Author is the respect of defence rights, as well as of the adversary principle, and critical remarks are therefore expounded concerning the features of such an approach. Furthermore, new developing modalities of cooperation between judicial authorities are taken into consideration in this article. In this regard, the Author argues that a legislative intervention, balancing efficiency and individuals’ rights, might overcome present lacks and shortcomings
Adenocarcinoma originating from presumed liver ectopic thyroid in a cat
No full textCase summary Ectopic thyroid tissue is rarely reported in dogs and cats in its prediaphragmatic location and has never been described in the liver. A 15-year-old spayed female domestic shorthair cat was diagnosed by ultrasound with a heterogeneous hypoechoic nodular area in the liver at the periphery of the quadrate lobe. A generic diagnosis of carcinoma was made after ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration and cytological examination. The patient underwent staging by CT scan and subsequently underwent hepatic lobectomy. Histologically, a diagnosis of thyroid adenocarcinoma was made, confirmed immunohistochemically using positive thyroglobulin staining; the tumour was suspected to be of metastatic origin. CT scans excluded primary thyroid involvement; in addition, lesions at other sites were not detected. Therefore, a final diagnosis of thyroid adenocarcinoma arising from ectopic thyroid tissue in the liver was made. The cat recovered uneventfully from surgery. Relevance and novel information This report describes an unusual case of an adenocarcinoma originating from presumed thyroid ectopic tissue within the liver of a cat. Ectopic thyroid tissue has been rarely reported in both dogs and cats and, to the authors’ knowledge, it has never been described in the liver of a cat
Editorial of Dossier “Criminal res iudicata, principle of legality, principle of culpability”
No full textWhat’s the meaning of the locution “medesimo fatto” in the Art. 649 of the Italian Criminal Procedure Code, that regulates the ne bis in idem principle (double jeopardy clause)? The fact object of the second judgment must be considered on its exclusively naturalistic dimension, no matter what the juridical qualification is according to the criminal law rules? In which measure the prohibition of second judgment operates when the criminal law rules tolerate the duplication of the sanctioning treatment, or when the legal system determines for the same fact, beyond penalty sanctions, administrative or civil punishment of considerable gravity? In which measure the conviction by definitive sentence is subject to revision based on wrong facts evaluation about the responsibility of the accused? Do the criminal sentences which inflict an illegal penalty or that condemn the accused for a fact that is not provided by law as a crime, have execution power? The author deals with these and other similar issues – widely discussed on Italian criminal procedure – in order to stimulate the debate about the theme of criminal res iudicata, on the general perspective and, more specifically, focusing on its relations with the principles of culpability and legality
Neuroscientific Evidence in Italian Criminal Proceedings
No full textThe author asks whether and to what extent neuroscientific evidentiary techniques can be considered admissible in Italian criminal procedure to assess the mental state of the accused or to verify the truthfulness of a statement, analyzing the national jurisprudence on the subjec
I criteri di priorità nella trattazione delle notizie di reato tra “Delega Cartabia” e legge di riforma dell’ordinamento giudiziario
No full textThe author addresses the issue of priority criteria in handling of crime reports in the light of the reform introduced by Law No. 71 of June 17th, 2022. The new rules provide an opportunity to reflect on the concept of investigative priority, and the controversial relationship between priorities indication and the principle of mandatory prosecution. Specific insights are reserved for the task assigned to Parliament to establish by law the “general criteria” to be followed in selecting priorities
Le testimonianze de relato nel processo penale. le ragioni di una secolare diffidenza
No full textTestimonial hearsay evidence aroues distrust in criminal trials for two different reasons.
First, because the second-degree statement is not directly concerned with the facts that
must be proved (whether or not it should be considered a “circumstantial” evidence in
the technical sense). Secondly, because the first-degree witness is not required to tell the
truth, does not speak in front of the judge and does not answer the questions of the trial
parties. The Author wonders whether and to what extent evidence like this is admissible
in an evidentiary law system such as the Italian one, in which, following the introduction
of art. 111 paragraph 4 of the Constitution, the paradigm of testimonial evidence is
represented by the oral statement made in court and subject to cross-examination
Truth and justification in the criminal procedure
No full textAfter clarifying that the only truth that criminal judge must declare is the “sad truth” of the defendant’s culpability, the Author of this article disputes the widespread opinion that this truth would be a minor and conventional truth, not comparable to scientific or historical ones. Also in the criminal proceedings we pursue the Truth with capital T, which must be regarded as correspondence between the indictment and the facts described in it. Only under these conditions the judgment of conviction can be considered rationally justified
Piroplasmi in ruminanti selvatici: indagine molecolare in Italia nord-occidentale
No full textLa fauna selvatica può ospitare numerosi patogeni trasmessi da zecche, responsabili delle Tick-borne diseases (TBD), malattie di rilievo sia per la sanitàanimale che per il loro potenziale zoonotico. L’aumento delle interazioni tra fauna selvatica, animali domestici e uomo ha favorito sia la diffusione di queste infezioni sia l’emergere di nuovi patogeni.
Per indagare il ruolo dei ruminanti selvatici come serbatoio di piroplasmi in Italia Nord-occidentale, è stata condotta un’indagine molecolare sulla prevalenza di Babesia spp. e Theileria spp. in 118 campioni di tessuto splenico di ruminanti selvatici provenienti dalle regioni Liguria, Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta. Nel dettaglio, sono stati analizzati 72 caprioli (Capreolus capreolus), 20 daini (Dama dama), 19 camosci (Rupicapra rupicapra) e 7 cervi (Cervus elaphus), campionati a seguito di attività venatoria o rinvenuti già deceduti.
Il DNA estratto da ciascun campione è stato analizzato con end-point PCR, rivelando infezioni da Babesia o Theileria spp. in 3 camosci (15,79% IC 95% 3,38-39,58) provenienti dalla Valle d’Aosta, 1 cervo (14,29% IC 95% 0,36-57,87) proveniente dal Piemonte 3 caprioli (4,17% IC 95% 0,87-11,70) provenienti dal Piemonte e dalla Liguria. Le positività sono state confermate tramite sequenziamento, che ha identificato Theileria sp. OT3 in tutti i campioni sequenziati. Pur essendo necessari ulteriori studi, questi risultati offrono un importante contributo alla conoscenza della distribuzione dei piroplasmidi nella fauna selvatica dell’Italia nord-occidentale.
Wildlife can host numerous tick-borne pathogens responsible for Tick-Borne Diseases (TBD), which are of significant concern for both animal and human health, due to their zoonotic potential. The increasing interactions among wildlife, domestic animals, and humans have favored not only the spread of these infections but also the emergence of new pathogens.
To investigate the role of wild ruminants as reservoirs of piroplasm infections in north-west Italy, a molecular survey on the prevalence of Babesia spp. and Theileria spp. was conducted analysing 118 spleen samples of wild ruminants from the Liguria, Piedmont, and Aosta Valley regions. In details, 72 roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), 20 fallow deer (Dama dama), 19 Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), and 7 red deer (Cervus elaphus), either legally hunted or accidentally found dead, were analysed.
DNA extracted from each sample was analyzed using end-point PCR, revealing infections with Babesia or Theileria spp. in red deer (14,29% IC 95% 0,36-57,87) from the Piedmont region, 3 roe deer (4,17% IC 95% 0,87-11,70) from the Piedmont and Liguria regions, and 3 chamois (15,79% IC 95% 3,38-39,58) from the Aosta Valley region. Positive results were confirmed through sequencing, which identified Theileria sp. OT3 in all sequenced samples. Although further studies are needed, these findings contribute valuable knowledge to the understanding of piroplasmid distribution in the wildlife of northwestern Italy
Adaptive deghosting of seismic data: A power-minimization approach
No full textIn marine seismic acquisitions, a major deteriorating effect on resolution is caused by ghost re- flections. Sensors towed at depth within a water column record not only the desired up-going wavefield reflected from geological formations, but also its reflections from the sea surface known as down-going wavefield, or seismic ghost. This generates notches in the spectrum of the measured wavefield, reducing significantly the usable bandwidth and hence the resolution of the seismic data. Recently, the removal of the ghost (‘deghosting’) has attracted increasing attention with the aim of obtaining more broadband data. In particular, improved deghosting promises to bring value to both legacy and newly acquired data in terms of high signal to noise ratio across a wide range of frequencies. Deterministic deghosting techniques assume a perfectly known ghost model. Unfortunately, environmental effects causing cable positioning errors and poor crossline sampling in marine seismic acquisition can cause deviations from a deterministic ghost model. As a result, this demands strong and often unrealistic assump- tions, such as exclusive inline propagation, a perfectly flat sea surface, or exactly positioned receivers. Additional measurements try to overcome these limitations, however, this is gener- ally expensive, thus motivating an adaptive deghosting approach for single sensor acquisitions. This thesis proposes a novel, simple and fast algorithm to effectively remove the ghost, based on a sequential approach that first estimates the ghost delay parameter through power min- imization of a hypothetical up-going wavefield, and deghosts the data in a final step. The algorithm was applied to real data and compared to current approaches, showing encouraging results. Through its simplicity and speed, the proposed method is largely domain independent and offers many opportunities to be extended.Applied Geophysics and PetrophysicsGeoscience & EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Data-driven 3D Deghosting Using Multisensor Marine Measurements
No full textMarine seismic acquisition tows submerged streamers to record pressure waves from the subsurface. The recording, however, contains both the desired upgoing wavefield and its (immediate) reflection off the sea-surface, causing a downgoing wavefield known as the seismic ghost. Interference between the up- and downgoing waves causes periodic low signal to noise ratio (S/N) ‘ghost notches’ in the recorded spectrum. To restore the broadband upgoing signal, we must remove the ghost (‘deghosting’). Deghosting using solely pressure measurements fails to restore the signal in the low S/N notches of the data. Current acquisition techniques acquire signals with different ghost notches, such that their proper combination recovers the broadband signal. This thesis uses multisensor acquisition: measurements of the pressure and particle velocity vector. The ghost notches on the pressure and vertical particle velocity are offset by half a period, such that their combination may provide good S/N at all frequencies. Current multisensor deghosting techniques make deterministic assumptions on the data and ghost model (such as a known streamer depth, or assuming energy propagating only along the streamer). If the assumptions do not correspond to the data, the deghosting fails to restore the true broadband signal. We propose two novel data-driven deghosting techniques, which estimate an adequate deghosting filter based on the data itself. The first method estimates the 3D propagation of energy using measurements of the pressure and crossline particle velocity along a single streamer. The 3D incidence angle is used to sum the pressure wave with vertical particle velocity such that only the upgoing wave is recovered. The second method estimates the filter parameters that explain the recorded ghosted data by minimizing a multisensor least-squares deghosting cost function. The cost function is analytically shown to outperform similar single sensor adaptive deghosting techniques in terms of sensitivity to the true ghost model. The obtained filter parameters may then be used to construct an inverse filter that restores the upgoing wavefield. We found that both methods produce encouraging results on real data, outperforming the existing deterministic multisensor deghosting methods.Civil Engineering and GeosciencesGeoscience & EngineeringApplied Geophysic
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